More Backpedaling from Wisconsin Republicans Who ‘Don’t Know’ Who Won in 2020

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) delivers the Republican response to Gov. Tony Evers' 2022 State of the State address. (Photo by Jonathon Sadowski)

By Pat Kreitlow

February 22, 2022

Vos confirms dozens of secret subpoenas while Gableman again asks a judge to jail two mayors.

The majority leader of the state Senate is the latest leading Republican in Wisconsin refusing to publicly acknowledge the results of a free, fair, and repeatedly verified 2020 presidential election—the latest sign of disarray in a major political party that is trying to placate a faction willing to undermine public confidence in elections and US democracy.

Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) was asked directly on WKOW-TV’s Capital City Sunday if President Joe Biden won legitimately in Wisconsin. “We don’t know,” he said. “There was obviously a lot of concerns with how those votes were cast.”

Concerns are not the same as facts, however, and the Wisconsin vote total has been repeatedly reaffirmed through recounts, lawsuits, and a Republican-ordered review by the Legislative Audit Bureau.

LeMahieu’s apparent concern about upsetting supporters of defeated former President Donald Trump mirrors the positions of the three major Republican candidates for governor.

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch has flip-flopped on Biden’s victory, refusing to give a clear answer to the question last week, even though five months ago she said Biden had won Wisconsin. Kevin Nicholson also recently refused to definitively answer the question. State Assembly Rep. Timothy Ramthun (R-Campbellsport) is actively running on a platform of illegally decertifying Wisconsin’s 2020 electoral votes.

Secret Subpoenas and New Jail Threats

State Assembly Republicans are now on record as asking a Waukesha County judge to put the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) in jail along with three mayors, two city clerks, and several local and state workers for refusing to go behind closed doors for interrogation by Michael Gableman, the former state Supreme Court justice now conducting a largely secret investigation of a long-settled 2020 presidential election, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“The Vos/Gableman ‘investigation’ has once again gone off the rails,” Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told the Cap Times, including a reference to Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. “It’s an awfully bold move for someone we don’t even know is authorized to conduct an investigation.”

Gableman’s original contract, which included taxpayer support of $676,000, expired at the end of December, and it’s not clear if an extension has been agreed upon, signed, and verified.

Rhodes-Conway and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich have said they are willing to testify publicly in front of the Assembly committee overseeing elections that authorized the Gableman probe, but they refused his demand to testify privately to him.

Vos told a radio interviewer on Friday that he has signed off on more than 100 subpoenas on behalf of Gableman, most of them still hidden from the public. Vos is facing a lawsuit over accusations he has withheld numerous items from an open records request.

Author

Pat Kreitlow

The Founding Editor of UpNorthNews, Pat was a familiar presence on radio and TV stations in western Wisconsin before serving in the state Legislature. After a brief stint living in the Caribbean, Pat and wife returned to Chippewa Falls to be closer to their growing group of grandchildren. He now serves as UNN's chief political correspondent and host of UpNorthNews Radio, airing weekday mornings 6 a.m.-8 a.m on the Civic Media radio network and the UpNorthNews Facebook page.

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